A Late Hour
by DirectionOfTime
Summary: Sasuke finally returns to the village to find his wife and daughter only to stumble upon a scene, and some revelations, he did not expect. One Shot. KakaSaku.


_Just a little ditty because I am really loving Dad!Kakashi at the moment ^_ ^ Be warned: I wrote this half-drunk!_

 **A Late Hour**

Despite the late hour and heavy rain, Sasuke noticed it right away, the additional face carved into the mountain, _was that… Kakashi? When did that happen?_ Sasuke had been under the impression that Kakashi had merely been acting Hokage for some interim period until Tsunade returned to take up the post. Apparently things had changed. It had only been nearly seven years since the end of the war and finally Sasuke had decided to return to Konoha, if only for a short while. It was probably time to see his daughter, after all. She must be… entering the academy by now, surely. He hopped over the rooftops, the soft glow of lights from family homes was sparing but warm; the light little more than a fuzzy illuminations few and far between, like little halos, hovering over the odd house through the foggy gloom. He finally reached the street where Sakura had her house, she'd sent him a letter a long time ago after Sarada had been born, including a picture of the infant and Sakura's new address; though he'd glanced over them, he'd easily memories the details. He walked up to the front door, about to slide open the fusuma when he heard a deep, masculine chuckle. He slipped around the house to peer in the window, where he saw Kakashi sitting cross-legged on the floor, in only his loose blue top and trousers, looking up at the dark haired child hanging from the ceiling, only by her feet. Sasuke didn't miss the crib with a sleeping infant in just behind him.

"Aiya, Sarada, you picked up that trick so quickly! Almost as fast as your Mama!" Kakashi grinned up at her,

"This is fun!" She yelled back,

"Shh, shh, Sarada, please don't wake your brother."

"Sunimasen," She sheepishly apologised, "Can we train more tomorrow? I know Mum is at the hospital until late, but can we do some shuriken training?" She excitedly whispered,

"Hai, I'll do my best to get home early, Sarada, to pick you and Itsuki up from Auntie Shizune's, but I can't make any promises."

"I know," She replied, the anticipated disappointment clear in her voice. Kakashi raised himself to his feet, lifting a hand to ruffle her fluffed hair from her upside down position, their faces almost level, "But we will definitely have time for practice at least twice before the weekend, okay?"

Sasuke took that moment to slide open the window, "What are you doing here Kakashi?" He asked suddenly, causing Sarada to squeak with surprise and her chakra to falter. Kakashi caught her seamlessly in his arms, she cuddled into him instantly, clearly afraid of the stranger.

"Sasuke? What are you doing back in Konoha?" Kakashi asked, watching his former student carefully from the corner of his eyes,

"I think you owe me an explanation first Kakashi." Sasuke tritely replied, only earning a sharp frown from the current Hokage,

"Why don't we start with basic courtesies, come in through the front door, I have a sleeping baby in here." Kakashi set Sarada to her feet, keeping a hand on her shoulder as he stared at Sasuke, whose response was to climb in through the window, carelessly treading over Itsuki's dresser, which doubled as a changing table. He walked up to Kakashi and Sarada,

"Do you think he is your father?" He asked Sarada, staring down at her from his full height; she moved to step behind Kakashi's leg on instinct,

"Who… are you? Why are you climbing in through Itsuki-chan's window in the middle of the night?" She rebutted, peering out from behind the Rokudaime. Kakashi merely pointed sharply at the bedroom door.

"You think you can intimidate me, Kakashi? I'm stronger than you."

"I think you owe Sakura an explanation for all these years. You clearly wanted something other than to question me, by coming to this particular house, right?" Sasuke stared at Kakashi for a long moment, before make a display of looking at the sleeping infant, who had a sharp quiff of pink hair, though he still slept soundly. Sasuke eventually walked over to the door and opened it, followed closely behind by Kakashi — who first made a kage-bunshin to remain in the room — and then Sarada.

"I was just about to call you two for dinner! How long does it take to put an already asleep baby to bed—" Sakura's cheerful voice greeted them though her sentence swiftly ended as she set eyes on the third person with them. Sarada hurried over to her mother's side, Kakashi followed soon after,

"Sorry, he just appeared through the window." Kakashi offered by way of explanation,

"Sasuke… what are you doing here? Why now? Why did you just drop in?" Sakura asked with increasing aggression, "You really think you can just appear again any everything will be fine? You haven't ever even set eyes on—" Sakura faltered a moment. She took a deep breath before turning to her daughter, "Sarada, please go to you room, whilst I talk with Sasuke."

"You shouldn't shield her from the realities of life, Sakura. She's going to have to learn them eventually."

"Oh, now comes the perfect, all-knowing father! What took you so long?" Sakura sarcastically replied, shooting Sasuke a foul look before turning a meaningful, though gentle one on Sarada who haltingly moved away to disappear down the hallway and out of sight."You aren't welcome here now, you can't just drop in at all hours of the night. If you want to talk, then you let me know ahead of time and you arrive at a sensible hour." Sakura continued, refocusing her attention on Sasuke.

"It's not that late."

"Its over six years too late, Sasuke, get out! My family needs to eat dinner and I have a long hospital shift tomorrow."

"I have a right to see my child… and wife."

"The marriage was annulled years ago."

"What?"

"I sent you a letter about it, the Daimyo happily agreed and it was finalised inside a week."

"Without my consent?"

"Of course it was, on the grounds of extreme neglect and absenteeism; you left before I even knew I was pregnant and refused to return even for her birth. Kakashi helped me prepare the case." Sakura cooly replied as Sasuke only stared at her.

"Apparently he's been helping a lot."

"So why are you back? Why now, I mean." Sakura asked, ignoring his comment. Kakashi had helped with more things than Sasuke could list in a lifetime.

"Sarada will need to be taught how to use the sharingan, if she has it—"

"Kakashi had a sharingan for longer than you, he can teach her everything she needs to know."

"He doesn't have a sharingan now. Why is he here? Why should the Hokage take a special interest in you?"

"It's called _being a husband_ , Sasuke, it's where you're actually an active part in your family and help raise the children and support each other." Kakashi replied,

"You… married _him?_ "

"We don't owe you an explanation, Sasuke. Leave this house or I will have you removed." Kakashi said and Sasuke, apparently sensing that he wasn't going to get anywhere, and in an uncharacteristic fit of sensibility, finally turned and walked towards the door.

"If you want to talk, I'm off the day after tomorrow." Sakura said to his back, not taking her eyes off him, he pulled open the door but look back. His cold mismatched eyes looking carefully at them both before walking out of the doorway and closing it behind him. Sakura let out a long shaky breath, "I can't believe he's sudden back like that… or that we'd get him out of the house that easily…"

"I know," Kakashi murmured, rubbing a comforting hand over her back, she quickly pulled him into a hug,

"Do you think he'll… _try_ anything?"

"I'll take Itsuki to the office with me tomorrow and I'll pass messages on the academy instructors to keep a close eye on Sarada; my kage bunshin's already gone to—"

"Hokage-sama," A stiff voice alerted them,

"Do you have eyes on Sasuke?" Kakashi asked the ANBU Captain from over his shoulder, not taking his arms off Sakura.

"Hai, my cell is currently tailing him."

"Keep an eye on him but do not provoke or attack him, this is still his village and he is free to move about as he wishes, but I expect to be informed instantly if he comes anywhere near this house, the academy building or the hospital, understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Please also go and inform Shizune-san that she only needs to pick up Sarada after the academy tomorrow and bring her to the Hokage tower."

"Hai!" The ANBU replied and was gone.

"Kakashi, you have a meeting with the Kazekage and the Tsuchikage tomorrow, you can't take Itsuki to that. Or Sarada." Sakura murmured into his shoulder, "Do you think we're overreacting?"

"No." Kakashi replied firmly, "Whilst I don't consider Sasuke an enemy, he can be unpredictable save for the fact he will work in his own interest first and foremost. If he reason for returning really is Sarada, then we need to be prepared that he might make some sort of move." He felt Sakura sigh deeply and squeezed her closer in a momentary effort to comfort her further.

"What's going on?" Sarada's immature voice drew them back to reality, they broke apart and Sakura crouched to outreach her arms, beckoning Sarada into a hug, which the girl hurried to do,

"I'm so sorry Sarada, that was very unexpected."

"Who was he?" She asked, as Sakura and Kakashi shared a glance,

"That was Uchiha Sasuke, he's your biological father, you remember when we told you about that?" Sakura explained, pulling back from the hug to look at her daughter, the young girl cocked her head in slight confusion, her eyes glancing over to Kakashi a few times.

"I've never seen him."

"No, he made the decision a long time ago that he didn't want to be a part of our lives, which I'm so sorry for, Sarada, you shouldn't ever have had to suffer that." Sakura whispered, in more anguish than Sarada appeared to be; Kakashi kneeled down beside his wife,

"But… Dad…" Sarada started, looking at Kakashi, clearly rather confused as to where the problem was,

"Hai, Sarada, _we_ are a family, you, Mum, Itsuki and me and I love just as if you were my daughter." Kakashi said, opening his arms to welcome Sarada into a warm hug, "Nothing is going to change that fact, either, Sarada, we will always be family." He gave her a small squeeze. "You don't have to worry about Sasuke, it's your choice whether you want to speak to him or not and if you do, then Mum and I will be right beside you."

"What if I don't?"

"Then you don't have to, you don't even have to see him if you don't want to."

"Okay." She answered, pulling back from Kakashi, "I'm hungry, can we eat?"

..

.


End file.
